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Imported Outlook contacts appear corrupted
Trying to import Outlook contacts from a csv file generated by the export function in AOL Mail.
The actual import runs smoothly and appears to populate the target instance of Outlook as expected. However email addresses selected from those imported contact records cause the email message to be rejected and the message is not sent. This happens as soon as you hit the send button.
I have tested this on two different computers and on two different Outlook profiles.
I have opened the CSV file in Excel and saved it as a spreadsheet and then saved it again as a csv file. Same result.
The csv and xls versions look normal in Excel.
OutlookMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft Office
Last Comment
lloving
When you do an import there is an option to map columns go through your mappings and ensure they are correct.
As David says make sure the CSV is correctly formatted.
This refers to Outlook.com but I believe it is the same for Outlook https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/import-contacts-to-outlook-com-285a3b55-8d93-4ac8-93df-43fffd13b2f1
You may also have to map fields as he also says: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/import-contacts-from-an-excel-spreadsheet-to-outlook-f6483469-0684-4c30-82c5-c881930f5451
This refers to Outlook.com but I believe it is the same for Outlook https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/import-contacts-to-outlook-com-285a3b55-8d93-4ac8-93df-43fffd13b2f1
You may also have to map fields as he also says: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/import-contacts-from-an-excel-spreadsheet-to-outlook-f6483469-0684-4c30-82c5-c881930f5451
ASKER
The default mappings appear to properly fill in the fields in Contacts when viewed from within Outlook.
ASKER
By way of a test I abandoned the default mappings and remapped the related fields. Imported again with the same result.
ASKER
When I test the mappings from the Map Custom Fields the email addresses look like this.
Verify the source csv is in UTF-8 encoding, i.e. by opening it with Notepad++. Notepad++ can also convert it.
ASKER
The csv file is in UTF-8 encoding
As Michael suggested - try opening the CSV in Notepad++ (it's free) and look for the malformatting there. It may well not show in Excel but likely will in N++
ASKER
Using Notepad## (Thanks for the suggestion Michael) I see no mal-formatted fields. If I highlight the email address text and do a lookup I get the expected response from Google.
Anyway try saving it as UTF-8 to a new file and try to import it.
ASKER
I have tried saving as a copy in UTF-8 with no luck. Also saved a copy as ANSI with a csv extension, no luck.
You could try a search and replace for non ASCII characters.
In Notepad++ do a search and replace and use the following to search for: [^\x00-\x7F]+
In Notepad++ do a search and replace and use the following to search for: [^\x00-\x7F]+
ASKER
The problem is the non-ASCII characters don't show up in NotePad##
All lines in the file look like this in Notepad##:
Bob,,smith,,,bobsmith@comcast.net,"home, primary",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
All lines in the file look like this in Notepad##:
Bob,,smith,,,bobsmith@comcast.net,"home, primary",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
ASKER
This does not qualify as a solution but more of an apparent workaround.
During the Outlook Contact import process "Clear Mappings" and start over. Map each field you want imported. Specifically map the email address to the email(#) field not the email(#) address field. This worked in my test environment. Now to real life.
I'll follow up later
During the Outlook Contact import process "Clear Mappings" and start over. Map each field you want imported. Specifically map the email address to the email(#) field not the email(#) address field. This worked in my test environment. Now to real life.
I'll follow up later
ASKER
Contacts successfully imported using the process outlined in my previous post
Issue resolved not solved.
Issue resolved not solved.
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